Never short of new ideas for schemes to ‘suck’ money out of prisoners, one of the guards has come up with a novel approach this week by taking it upon himself to resurrect an outdated prison regulation concerning prisoners haircuts in the hope that its enforcement will pay cash dividends for him.

The regulation states that all prisoners must sport the ‘short back and sides’ ‘G.I.’ style cut as described. Failure to do so will result in disciplinary action against the prisoner.

This ‘rule’ has not been enforced in Bang Kwang for years and prisoners have been allowed to wear their hair at any length though most tend to keep it fairly short for the sake of hygiene.

This latest scheme is the brainchild of the assistant chief whose order that this rule be temporarily enforced is aimed mainly at the buildings long haired ‘ladyboy’ population. He is banking on the prediction that the ‘girls’ will be outraged and looking for any way in which they can avoid the electric shears. That ‘way’, of course, has already been provided by non other than the assistant who for the non-returnable deposit of a crisp one thousand baht note will defer an appointment with the ‘Demon Barber’ to a later date (upon which time, no doubt, a new deposit will be discussed)

There is only one word in the English language which adequately sums up the actions of this officer: ‘PIMPING’!!! How else would you describe a man who lives off the immoral earnings of the ‘Ladyboys’ in this building? And just like a real ‘Pimp’ he uses fear as a weapon. He is fully aware of how this group of prisoners go about making money inside, as are the rest of us. He wants a slice of the action! So far, two unlucky ‘Ladies’ have either refused or been unable to come up with the money and have been shaven, pretty much,’ back to the wood’. One has to wonder at the business sense of a man who tries to increase his earnings by destroying the earning potential of around 20% of his assets?....Or is it a simple, hideously slash case of “if I don’t make money, I’ll stop them making it too!!”

We suspect the truth lies in the later and that his real motive is to demonstrate just who can be ‘the biggest bitch of them all!!’

Finally this month, heartfelt thanks once again go out to the wonderful ladies of the B.W.G. who have now extended helpful and friendly hands to the Australian Contingent in Bang Kwang. The Aussie Boys have asked us to pass on their grateful thanks to ‘G.’ and her fine crew after the ladies have written letters and sent in ‘care pa rcels’ for them. The generosity and kindness of this very special group of people is an example to us all.

Australian Women’s Group. Take note!!!

LATEST NEWS JULY 2006

                                                                 By Bert Bratoo

 

 

Just when we thought we’d experienced every kind of despicable behavior possible from our keepers, the prison guards, a new worrying habit by some of their number is slowly coming to light and causing deep resentment amongst the prisoners. Last week the latest in a series of distressing stories of abuse toward visiting female friends and relatives was reported in a written complaint to the building chief here by an irate prisoner.

The prisoner’s wife had been waiting to be let in along with a larger group of visiting relatives on a Tuesday visiting session. One of the guards instructed her to wait to one side while the remainder of the visitors were briefly searched and shown through to the visiting area. Once they had stepped through out of sight the officer began to search this particular lady’s body with his hands and at the same time made lewd, suggestive and sexually explicit remarks to her and proposed that she meet up with him later at a nearby motel. The implication was made that should she not comply with his wishes, her husband would suffer at the hands of his guard and his colleagues who could “make things very difficult for him”,

The woman was eventually allowed through to the visiting room where she picked up the phone to her husband in floods of tears and visibly shaken. She related the story of what had just occurred to her husband but begged him not to take it any further for his own safety but he was so upset by the episode that he insisted she tell him the officer’s name and immediately wrote a formal complaint to the director after the visit was over.

The next day the prisoner was summoned to the building chief’s office where he was told that his complaint would have serious implications for him should he try to proceed. It would be better all round if he were to “overlook” this small indiscretion by a junior officer and allow the chief to have a word with the culprit himself. Of course should this happen again in the future he, the chief, would be more that happy to pass the complaint on up through the chain of command, but for this occasion he was not prepared to take any further action and the  matter should from then on be considered closed.

This kind of behavior by a uniformed officer is sickening enough on its own but it is far from an isolated event. This was the latest in a string of sexually orientated abuses toward female visitors which only makes it all the more shocking. There have been reports of at least four similar events this year alone and they are just from prisoners housed in this building. Nor is a single officer to blame but a number of those whose duty it is to screen visitors according to prison security regulations.

These guards seem to think they are untouchable and indeed are correct to some extent. From a prisoner’s standpoint, it is virtually impossible to lodge a complaint against any officer here. There is a formal complaints structure on paper but in reality it is stacked so far in favor of the authorities that it is impossible to complain about anything at all without their complete consent.

Complaints made to officers within the building are never passed up the chain of command and quite often the complainant will be threatened or singled out for ill treatment. Written complaints addressed directly to the department of corrections are intercepted in the mail room and never reach their intended recipients.

The bottom line is that genuine complaints by prisoners go unheard and those that do complain are persecuted and thus Bang Kwang’s officers believe that they can get away with anything as far as their wards are concerned. Furthermore they are safe in the knowledge that they will be protected by their senior officers who perpetuate their unacceptable behavior by failing to report such incidents or burying complaints using threats to scare off the aggrieved party.

The building chiefs actions concerning this particular incident are perhaps more despicable than the behavior of the officer whose ‘indiscretions’ he so deftly kept a lid on. While authorities in this prison remain answerable to no-one, the prisoners, their families and friends remain dangerously unprotected.

 

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Big brand companies who doubt the government to wipe out Thailand’s thriving billion dollar pirating industry would do well to confront the department of corrections about its role in the production of counterfeit clothing and goods within its prison system.

The numerous ‘Sweatshop’ factories spread amongst different buildings here within Bang Kwangs walls have seen a flourish of extra activity recently. New industrial sewing machines have been trucked in and batches of prisoners trained to operate them as production is increased in order to fulfill a huge new order for ‘Pirate’ clothing being produced using the ‘Diesel’ brand name. These ‘Sweatshops’ are owned wholly by individual guards or in partnership with their family, relations. Huge ‘Kick-backs’ are paid to the prison director and his cronies for allowing the unrestricted passage of raw materials into, and finished products out of the prison. As well as payments for the use of electricity and of course prisoners for their free labor pool.

The prisoners themselves are forced to work under threat of disciplinary action or loss of privileges such as visits and mail. They work all day, 7 days a week and have impossible quotas to fill. Their payment? Usually nothing, but occasionally a guard ‘Forman’ will actually make the connection between a well fed workforce and increased output and will pay them a few meager Baht per month so they are able to supplement their poor diets with fresh food.

The dept. of corrections meanwhile are happy to overlook this misuse of got. Property and the basic rights of prisoners in the pursuit of pure profit, not a cent of which is ploughed back in for the education of prisoners or their rehabilitation. Nice work if you can get it though I seriously doubt the ‘Diesel’ clothing company’s copyright department would see it that way!